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Vampire Diaries: Vampires
Characteristics of the vampires in The Vampire Diaries. ((Currently in rough notes, will keep adding and then construct an article. Feel free to add other info and page refs (though note what edition of the book you're using). Redzilla 04:15, 5 February 2009 (UTC))) Page 68, The Awakening, Double-volume print. Katherine's explanation of vampires to Stefan. Powers P.230 'The Awakening': Strength, quickness, sharpening of all the senses, especially at night. Sensing the presence of minds and sometimes the nature of thoughts. Cast confusion on weaker minds, overwhelm them or bend them to the vampire's will. The more they kill, the stronger the vampire's Powers become. ((Does age factor into Power increases, or just blood and kills? Klaus could be so strong because he's been able to kill so many in his age rather than powers maturing. If this is the case, Stefan has to have had human blood to get Powers from somewhere as it's probably impossible to kill enough bunnies to get any Powers of worth unless you're Bunny Slaying 24/7)) Stefan implies several times his Powers will return without human blood. If he's telling the truth, then that suggests that once you get your Power levels, you don't get weaker unless you're short on regular blood to fuel them. Mental Powers P.231 Damon says in Stefan's mind that he's coming back to Florence, and that Stefan should be gone by the time he arrives. This implies that with enough Power, a vampire can project their thoughts over quite a distance. P.260, The Struggle. Damon could feel Elena's anger from the other side of town. P.325, The Struggle, Stefan says he's been sensing fear and hostility all day, a sign that vampires - even when Powers are weak and they're drained - can sense emotions. P.368-374, The Struggle. Damon has the power to influence Elena's dreams. P.374. The locks on the window of the room Elena was sleeping in have been opened. P.377, Elena assumes he influenced her to sleep walk and open them. P.379. "(Damon) can use the power of his mind from a distance, and he can do it whether you're awake or asleep." P.490. Even newly turned, Elena can pick up the psychic cries of Stefan and Damon. Changing into Animals With enough human blood it's possible to change shapes and become animals. P.347. Limited to one animal form, at the most two. Stefan suspects that Damon doesn't have the Power for more, despite his strength. Older vampires with more Power seem to have more, as Katherine has at least three. Thought processes tend to be slowed a bit by having animal brains. The Struggle, P.489 "The falcon's brain could not deal with the riot of emotions the taunting question called up." Strength and Reflexes P.336. Damon catches the bread stick Elena throws away in midair, a 'virtuoso display of reflex'. Weather Control P.257, The Struggle (double volume). Implication of weather control. Elena assumes that the display of icy wind is Damon showing off his Power. It likely is, given it dies down in that scene, possibly as a result of Elena slapping him and the surprise making him lose his concentration. P.262, his rage causes him to start whipping the wind up again, and also to then manipulate the weather to cause snow. P.346. "It takes enormous Power to control the elements." P.475. The weather takes an ominous change with wind and mist. There is also sleet, along with lightning. Elena assumes that it's Damon, though we later learn this is Katherine's doing. Physical Characteristics The Struggle, P.257 (double volume print) - subject to the same physical forces as humans, at least when unprepared. Elena's slap knocks Damon's face to the side, and is solid enough for blood to rise where she hits him. Same physical reaction as a human, though able to endure trauma to a far greater extent, and recover from it far quicker. Weaknesses "It's ironic, but the stronger your Powers are, the more you're affected by certain limitations. The more you belong to the dark, the more the rules of the dark bind you." -- Stefan, P.345 The Struggle (double volume). Invitations The Struggle, P.344. (Elena) said, "Do you think someone invited him in?" "Obviously, since he was in." "Then it's true about--people like you. You have to be invited in. But Damon got into the gym without an invitation." "That's because the gym isn't a dwelling place for the living. That's the one criterion. It doesn't matter if it's a house or a tent or an apartment above a store. If living humans eat and sleep there, we need to be invited inside." It doesn't have to be a verbal invitation, so long as the intent is there. Elena nodded to Stefan when he first drove her home, and that was enough. The human doesn't have to actually live there to invite a vampire in. P.176. Elena inadvertently invites Damon into Bonnie's house. P.310. Stefan: "And make sure no one invites a stranger into your house... Make sure of it." P.330. Random students are inviting other people into the Ramsey house where Alaric is staying. P.335. Damon has managed to easily get himself invited in to Alaric's place. P.424. Damon manages to get himself invited into Elena's house. P.435. There seems to be a physical barrier in thin air at a threshold that prevents vampires getting past it. Running water The Awakening, P.61. The force in the graveyard is unable to follow the girls once they've crossed the bridge over Drowning Creek. The Struggle, P.345. Stefan: "Running water can be a barrier in itself. For some of us, it's almost impossible to cross." Sunlight Vampires can go out in sunlight if they wear Lapis Lazuli. The sun does, however, tire them out. P.215 'The Awakening'. Stefan: "Without such a talisman, we die in sunlight as if in a fire." P.217 In regards to Stefan's new ring: "You do not need it yet to face the sun," she said softly, smiling. "But very soon you will." - it seems that the change is gradual enough that the newly changed/changing aren't hurt by the sun. Weaknesses that are Myths P.346. Garlic P.346. Crosses. Though belief can strengthen a person's will to resist. P.346. Silver bullets. Those are for werewolves. They don't like silver in any form. P.348. No reflections. Stefan reveals he has a reflection in the rear-view mirror of the car. Protections for Humans P.346. Vervain. Protects against bewitchment and can keep the mind clear when Powers are being used against the holder. P.347. Regular animals don't react well to vampires, as they sense that they're hunters. Killing a Vampire P.347 Sunlight, wooden stake, beheading, burning, driving nails through the temples Being fed on Pain at first, which quickly goes away and then becomes a pleasant experience. (This is interesting, given that it's Klaus who drank from her, and he's portrayed as pretty brutal in general. Makes one wonder what Gudren had to offer to make him do this for Katherine and be gentle with her). Stefan's own observation was one of pure joy and bliss once Katherine was feeding from him, and that there was a connection between them, each feeling the other's pleasure. P.238 Elena also describes that the bite is a sharp sting, but the pain fades almost instantly, with a feeling of pleasure that makes her tremble. There's also a mention of sweetness flowing from her to Stefan. If the victim is unwilling, and the vampire vicious with the bite, then the experience is painful and traumatic. P.246 'The Awakening' - "...he felt the sharp rending pain of teeth. He felt the humiliation and helplessness of the hunter's victim, of the hunted, of the prey. And then the pain of blood being drawn out against his will. He refused to give in to it, and the pain grew worse, a feeling as if his soul was tearing loose like the sapling. It stabbed through him like spears of fire, concentrating on the punctures in his flesh where Damon's teeth had sunk in. Agony flamed up his jaw and cheek and down his chest and shoulder. He felt a wave of vertigo and realised he was losing consciousness." Evidently being relaxed and giving in to it is an important part of lessening any pain. The bond produced with pleasure seems as though it can be replicated with pain, as it seems that Damon is deliberately forcing his dominance over Stefan and making him feel even more helpless. P.305 - "Before, (Elena) had felt his agonising need, his driving hunger. Now, through the bond they shared, she felt only fierce joy and satisfaction." and "Her own pleasure came from giving, from knowing that she was sustaining Stefan with her own life. She could sense the strength flowing into him." The Change Katherine states that she and Klaus waited for the dawn together after she'd drunk his blood. The next morning she was miraculously cured of her illness because she was a vampire. This implies that the change only takes a few hours and can happen while the person is still alive, and does throw a question mark over the whole 'undead' label, at least for a few vampires. It gets a little confusing as Elena changes after only a few hours after death, and her confusion is put down to the fact she hasn't had enough blood from Stefan and Damon. However, Stefan and Damon had clearly had enough blood from Katherine in order for Damon to have a power boost and drink some blood (which makes me wonder how far along he was in the change anyway, and whether being killed was necessary for him to become a vampire at all - Stefan may not even be responsible for that). Yet despite this, they don't wake up until after their own funerals when they've been laid to rest in the crypt. I'm guessing that it would be more than a few hours before they ended up being placed in the crypt, especially given the reaction the servants had to Stefan reappearing. If it had only been a few hours, they could have likely passed it off as whoever pronounced them dead being an idiot. Days passing makes much more sense in that context, yet contradicts Katherine and Elena's changes. Stefan notes that the morning after Katherine exchanges blood with him, his bite wounds are healing faster, and that the next night other changes were beginning to take place. Improved vision, hearing and strength start coming in within twenty four hours of blood exchange, as well as the hunger. Forty eight hours after exchanging the blood sees Stefan desperate for blood. His veins felt as if they were "dry and cracked", and he recognises that he won't be able to resist taking blood for much longer. This is presumably before the change has completed. By all accounts, it's likely that the sword fight had no bearing on whether or not Stefan and Damon became vampires, and likely the reason they were out so long is because they were so gravely wounded that it took their vampire healing that long to bring them back to full health, especially considering that Stefan hadn't had any blood to sustain him at all. This also leads the reader to think that Stefan's assumption that he's dead when he gives Elena his 'quick and the dead' speech is inaccurate. Katherine certainly doesn't seem to have died at any point in her transformation, and there was no mention of needing to die in order for it to be complete. It actually makes little sense for Stefan and Damon to be out as long as they were if they were actually dead, especially when taking into account how quickly Elena came back, and that was without the benefit of a proper turning. They were so far along that it just seems strange with the timing. Stefan, P.228 'The Awakening': "Both Damon and I had just enough of Katherine's blood to keep us from truly dying." This certainly supports the theory that Stefan and Damon were in death-like comas while they healed. Could be Stefan is just a melodramatic, emo bastard when he's claiming to be dead. Although: P.229: "If he hadn't died then, with Katherine's blood so strong in his veins, he would have had a chance. In time the blood would have grown weaker, and then passed away. He would have become a normal human again. By killing him then, I condemned him to live in the night. I took away his only chance of salvation." This is confusing. Again, no death was mentioned about Katherine, and she didn't mention either of the brothers having to die. Also, it's later stated that Stefan has little to no contact with other vampires, so how would he know these things about the blood growing weaker? Has he been experimenting on humans? The changes that Stefan describes, the thirst, it seems like he's too far gone to ever go back to being human. Elena didn't have these symptoms, and still ended up going through the change at death. Does 'death' trigger a drastic change? Has LJS merely failed to mention that dying needs to happen, and Katherine's simply happened off-screen? But surely it would have been noticed if she spend a few hours - or days - dead at any point? Gudren can only protect her so far, she was so ill that physicians would have been around her a lot. Feeding Blood Katherine says she can get by on a dove a night. Evidence in The Awakening suggests that a rabbit a day isn't enough for Stefan, or even several birds. Is this implying that the older a vampire gets, the more blood they need? Or is the implication that Stefan needs more as he's simply used to it? If this is the case, why would he be drinking more than he knows he needs? Is this because he's been using Powers and needs more blood? Human blood is the strongest and gives more power, though animal blood is probably enough to give Stefan his limited powers. P.108 - Stefan notes that if the need to feed gets out of control it can cause strange things to happen. P.230 Stefan: "Humans have the strongest life essence, and their blood gives power. And when they're killed, somehow the life essence they give is strongest of all. It's as if in those last moments of terror and struggle the soul is the most vibrant." The effects of drinking blood kick in immediately. The Struggle, P.306. Following Stefan's time in the well, he's near death with no detectable life signs. After drinking Elena's blood, Stefan regains colour to his skin and a flush to his cheeks. He's also pulled back from the brink enough that he is able to laugh. On P.307 his heartbeat has gone from being undetectable to being normal when Mary checks it, though a little slow, even for an athlete. This is probably due to vampires having slow heart rates, but also perhaps partly due to him not being at full health yet. Description of the hunger, P.328, The Struggle. "The dry ache, the burning, was spreading along his upper jaw,whispering through his veins and capillaries." Human Food P.212 Stefan notes that vampires can eat and drink human food, they just don't need to. P.329 "(Stefan) himself could chew and swallow ordinary food if he had to, though it did him no good, and he had long since lost any taste for it." Likely eating is a practice that vampires have to keep up with in order to enjoy food. Sleeping P.72 - Stefan states he needs to get some sleep, which implies that vampires do have to sleep from time to time. Category:Species: Vampire Diaries Powers and Characteristics in The Return: Nightfall Due to the 17-year time period between the original series and ''[[The Return|''The Return]]'' trilogy, and the resulting inconsistencies between the texts, information from [[The Return|''The Return]]'' is being isolated under its own heading.'' No sex. Floating.